Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Sunny Weekend Bike Ride

Hey! With a day off in our possession and the barometer rising up to a cheeky 16 degrees, last Saturday James & I grabbed some bikes, kindly lent by his brother and ventured off on a mini adventure. We started off in the village of Old, a teeny little nook of Northamptonshire and headed towards Lamport.

The route was about 10miles but oh my days, someone might have warned me that cycling is HARD work! As a youngster, it would have been a difficult task to prise me off my bike or out of my roller blades so I wrongly (oh so wrongly) assumed that a bike ride would be a breeze. Remind me next time that country biking is not as easy as urban cycling.

Going down the hills at super speed was so much fun; going up the hills at snail’s pace was torturous. To top it off, on the way back we seemed to get ourselves caught up in an actual road cycling race and embarrassingly, even had to cross the finish line. I am speaking purely for myself, James, rather annoyingly was a pro... but also a massive helpful in re-explaining how bicycle gears worked...Still don't get it.

Despite the thigh burn, we had the absolute best day! So pretty, so nice, so peaceful! We stopped for a lil rest break outside the stunning Lamport hall, and treated ourselves to some much needed refreshments at Lamport’s gorgeous pub, The Swan. Just by absolute chance, I happened to pick up my DianaF+ lomo in the morning and found that it had an unused roll of film that I’d obviously chucked in with the intention of loading and forgotten about it! There’s still some film to use up but can’t wait to see how the pictures turn out. The light was faultless for it!

At the risk of looking like a twee/child conglomerated ball of cliché, I thought it was an opportune moment to take my leather backpack out for a spin! Last year, we found out 5 days before the event that we had tickets for Latitude, so the backpack it was an impromptu Primark purchase intended for sole use in fields, to lug around cameras... and sneaky hipflasks of Southern Comfort!

FYI: if your festival of choice this summer is a bit stuffy about taking your own alcohol tinged beverage into the arena, a small hipflask is the perfect size for slipping down the side of your wellies... just sayin’ ;).

Finishing off the day with a veggie BBQ, I’d say it was a day off well spent! Lets hope for more of the same this weekend!